Page 34 of Hunted Temptation (Alpha Nights: Unlikely Heroes #4)

MARLOWE

Lucille keeps Stellan for the rest of the morning, although she’s not far.

I can see them both. She sits in her rocking desk chair and just rocks him.

I ask about five times if she needs me to take him so she can get her work done, but she just waves me away.

I’m not sure what she does here, but I haven’t seen her actually do anything.

I try to sort through the papers, making piles in alphabetical order so I can file them away in the filing cabinet. I have no idea if I’m doing this correctly, but when I get to the C s, I realize that most of them have a place, so maybe, just maybe, I’m not screwing things up too badly.

There is a knock beside me, and I turn my head to see Hale standing in the doorway, his attention focused on me. I open my mouth but close it before I tilt my head to the side. I’m confused, mainly because I can’t figure him out.

The way he’s looking at me, watching me, it seems like something is wrong, but I have no idea what it could be. I open my mouth to ask him when he clears his throat and takes a step toward me, then another. He stops directly in front of me, and my breath hitches.

I can feel the heat coming off his body. I can smell him, and if I use my imagination just a little bit, I can probably dream of what he tastes like, too. I don’t think it would take much for that, either.

But when Hale speaks, the warm, gooey thoughts instantly vanish, and I’m filled with equal parts panic and dread.

“Some guy called my cell phone and asked where his baby was.”

My hand lifts, slamming against my chest before I shift it to cover my mouth. I don’t know why I hit myself before I cover my mouth. I just do. My vision becomes blurry as tears form in my eyes. They fall almost instantly.

“No,” I breathe. “No.”

I repeat the same word over and over, my hand over my mouth, tears running down my cheeks. I don’t know when or how it happens, but I’m wrapped up in Hale’s arms, and then I hear a door close before he slides his hands up and down my back soothingly.

“I think it’s time you tell me who he is, sweetheart. I can’t help you if I don’t know.”

I want to wrench away from him and run. But I can’t. If Dorian is looking for me, looking for Stellan, there is no way I can protect either of us the way Hale can. At least the way I hope Hale can.

“I don’t want to,” I confess.

He lifts one of his hands to cup my cheek before he slides the pad of his thumb along my bottom lip. His gaze searches mine for a long moment before he tilts his head to the side, and I know that is his way of urging me to speak without verbally demanding it.

I still don’t want to, but I have been putting this off for months. I should have told him immediately who Stellan’s father was, at the very least when I agreed to move in with him. I didn’t because I’m selfish, and it felt like fate, like a sign from above, like a chance at safety.

“He was one of my sister’s friends,” I whisper.

Hale chuckles. “Yeah, sweetheart. I clocked that about the second I knew you were pregnant.”

“We never ever dated. I didn’t like him. I don’t really know him,” I continue, and he just smiles, soft and kind, before he speaks again.

“Yeah, Marlowe, I figured that part out about two seconds after I knew you were pregnant.”

I’m skirting around the details, but I can also guess just by what he’s already figured out about me that he knows the situation.

Admitting it all aloud is a different kind of feeling, though.

I don’t want to say the words. I’ve thought them a million times, but actually speaking them out loud hits differently.

“Did he hurt you?” Hale asks.

I bite the flesh of my bottom lip and worry it for a moment. I don’t know how to respond to that. No, I do know how to respond to that. I just don’t want to. I don’t want Hale to know. I don’t want anyone to know. I want to live my life in a way where I can pretend none of that happened.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” he murmurs.

“Why?” I ask.

“It determines whether he lives or dies.”

HALE

The expression she wears is… surprise mixed with awe. I can’t quite place it exactly. Maybe that’s just how I feel about the whole thing. Maybe she is horrified, and I just don’t want to believe it. I don’t shift away from her, though. I need to feel her. I need to know that she’s okay.

That she doesn’t think of me as a monster.

“He’s not a nice man,” she finally whispers.

Lifting my other hand to her face, I cup her other cheek. I search her gaze. I can’t look away from her. “I imagine he’s not, just based on my interaction with him. I can only guess what yours was like.”

“I hate him,” she hisses. “Stellan isn’t his.”

“He isn’t?” I ask.

She closes her eyes slowly, then reopens them in a long blink. “He is, biologically that is. But he’s not. You are.”

The words are simple, yet they mean absolutely everything.

Everything .

“I appreciate that, sweetheart,” I rasp. “But I still need to know what happened.”

“It’s embarrassing.” She turns her head to the side. At least she tries. She doesn’t get away with it, because my muscles flex and I hold my hand strong against her cheek.

I watch as her eyes close again before she shifts her attention back to meet mine. “If I tell you, then it really happened.”

“Marlowe,” I exhale. The sound comes out almost as a moan.

My cock aches to be inside her, so maybe it is a moan. I don’t know how much longer I can go without having her. I know she just had a baby. I know she’s not mine. But she is mine all at the same time.

“I’m sorry, Hale. Really sorry. I should have told you about Dorian. I should have at least warned you about who he was.”

“A drug dealer?” I guess.

She snorts as her lips twitch into a smirk. It’s not one of those smiles where she is actually joking. It’s more nonhumorous. “Yeah, but not just a random lowlife. He was Myla’s boyfriend’s boss. The head asshole.”

Of course he was.

“And I’m sure he threatened you, using your sister’s safety to manipulate you.”

I allow her to take a step backward when she tries to move. She can do that. I know she needs the space, but it’s the last thing I want to give her. I want to hold her closer, to kiss her and tell her that she’s safe, to assure her that he can never touch her again—never fucking again.

But as much as I want to do that, I don’t. I can sense she needs a bit of space, but only a bit. I still stay close enough to touch her. When she’s ready, I’ll reach out for her. To comfort her. Whatever she needs from me, she’s got it. Even if she doesn’t realize she needs it yet.

“He threatened Myla. But only afterward. He took advantage. No…” Her words trail off as she shakes her head a couple of times, then her eyes find mine. “He didn’t just take advantage. He threatened me. Abused me. He didn’t allow me to say no.”

“He violated you,” I state, balling my hands into fists at my sides. I’m going to kill him. With or without her permission, Dorian is dead.

“He did,” she breathes. “But I thought that was it. I never saw him again and had hoped he wouldn’t find me with you.”

I take this moment to move closer to her. Wrapping my arms around her, I haul her body against mine. She slides her hands between us, placing her palms against my chest as she tips her head back to look up at me.

“He will not touch you. And he will not touch Stellan. Not now, not tomorrow, not fucking ever.”